''Armikrog'' (stylized as ''Armikrog.'') is a stop-motion
point-and-click adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
comedy game by
Doug TenNapel
Douglas Richard TenNapel ( ; born July 10, 1966) is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, video game designer, and comic book artist whose work has encompassed animated television, video games, and comic books. He is best known for creating ...
in partnership with Pencil Test Studios and
Versus Evil
Versus Evil, LLC is an American video game publisher founded by former ZeniMax Online Studios marketing director Steve Escalante to focus on the independent video game market. Versus Evil's staff is located in California, Texas, and Maryland.
Hi ...
for
Microsoft Windows,
OS X,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
,
PlayStation 4,
Wii U
The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.
Th ...
and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
. It is a spiritual successor to ''
The Neverhood
''The Neverhood'' (released in Japan as ''Klaymen Klaymen: The Mystery of Neverhood'' and referred to in the English version's intro as ''The Neverhood Chronicles'') is a 1996 point-and-click adventure video game developed by The Neverhood, Inc. a ...
'', and is developed by many members of the same team. Like ''The Neverhood'', ''Armikrog'' uses
clay animation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
.
Gameplay
The game plays in a traditional point-n-click with a cursor to interact with objects and navigate around. The player controls two characters: space explorer Tommynaut and his sidekick Beak-Beak. Much like Klaymen in ''The Neverhood,'' Tommynaut has the ability to store items in his body. The player primarily controls him to do most of the grunt work like pulling levers, driving the Zipkicker and solving most of the puzzles. Beak-Beak has the ability to fly in certain areas and enter tight space that only he has access to. He can also digest small objects and pass them to Tommynaut by regurgitating them out.
Story
On the planet of Ixen, the populace is in the midst of extinction without the power of P-tonium to sustain them. They send brother astronauts Vognaut, Numnaut and Tommynaut to a planet called Spiro 5 in hopes to find these crystals. Unfortunately, two of the brothers are dead due to unknown causes, leaving Tommynaut and his best friend Beak-Beak to continue onward.
After crash-landing on the planet, they end up locked inside a fortress called Armikrog. They find a baby girl named P and Tommynaut decides to care for her in hopes to find her parents. Upon further investigation, Tommynaut discovers that Armikrog was previously attacked by an unknown assailant who wished to possess the P-tonium crystals, which were assumed to be imbedded in Father and Mother, the guardians of Armikrog and also P's parents. The assailant killed both parents before learning that the crystals were transferred to P instead. Father and Mother's spirits live on in Armikrog as a result. Tommynaut later discovers that the assailant is Vognaut, who is somehow alive and has grown larger due to an unknown mutation. The evil brother kidnaps P and straps her into a device in hopes to extract the P-tonium for his own gain. Beak-Beak is later killed in an attempt to rescue the baby. Enraged, Tommynaut fights his brother and manages to escape with P.
After reuniting all 5 P-tonium crystals from P, the spirit of Mother thanks Tommynaut for saving her daughter. She then gives her blessings to use the crystals to power his home planet, which is more than enough to last for an eternity. Mother then transforms the Armikrog fortress into a giant robot that Tommynaut can use to navigate back to Ixen. Vognaut tries to kidnap P again before he is ejected out of the fortress and is crushed by its gigantic leg. The now transformed Armikrog ascends into space.
Tommynaut is then reunited with Beak-Beak, who is now a ghost. Suddenly, a distress signal is being heard from Numnaut, who too is alive. Tommynaut, along with Beak-Beak and P, set their next course to Darshon's Orb.
Development
Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield, founders of Pencil Test Studios, teamed up with
Doug TenNapel
Douglas Richard TenNapel ( ; born July 10, 1966) is an American animator, writer, cartoonist, video game designer, and comic book artist whose work has encompassed animated television, video games, and comic books. He is best known for creating ...
, with whom they worked on ''
Earthworm Jim
''Earthworm Jim'' is a series of platform games featuring an earthworm named Jim who wears a robotic suit and battles the forces of evil. The series is noted for its platforming and shooting gameplay, surreal humor, and edgy art style. Four game ...
'' and ''
The Neverhood
''The Neverhood'' (released in Japan as ''Klaymen Klaymen: The Mystery of Neverhood'' and referred to in the English version's intro as ''The Neverhood Chronicles'') is a 1996 point-and-click adventure video game developed by The Neverhood, Inc. a ...
'', to use
Kickstarter to crowdfund ''Armikrog''. The Kickstarter's goal of $900,000, and stretch goal of $950,000 for a Wii U version were exceeded when the funding ended on June 27, 2013.
The game has a voice cast featuring
Michael J. Nelson
Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...
as Tommynaut,
Rob Paulsen as Beak-Beak and the PresidANTs,
Jon Heder
Jonathan Joseph Heder (; born October 26, 1977) is an American actor, best known for his role as the title character of the 2004 comedy film ''Napoleon Dynamite''. He has also appeared in the films '' Just Like Heaven'', '' The Benchwarmers'', '' ...
as evil Vognaut,
Veronica Belmont
Veronica Ann Belmont (born July 21, 1982) is an American online media personality. She was formerly the co-host of the Revision3 show ''Tekzilla'' alongside Patrick Norton. Belmont was the co-host of the former TWiT.tv gaming show ''Game On!'' al ...
as Mother, Bob Baffy as Father, Charlotte Schofield as P, Yumi Iwama, Jeff Minnerly, Bob Doll as the Octovators, and Eddie Fantastic as Numnaut.
The game's soundtrack was composed by
Terry Scott Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor (born May 24, 1950) is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies (credited as Camarillo Eddy). Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternativ ...
, who composed the music for ''The Neverhood'' soundtrack.
Reception
''Armikrog'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
.
Critics appreciated the fun art style and catchy music. As a fan of ''The Neverhood,'' Destructoid's Caitlin Cooke praised the game saying that it has a certain charm that only Doug TenNapel can deliver. She did however criticise the lack of an inventory system and outdated interface. GameSpot's Matt Espineli gave a 4/10 rating, with criticism stem from underdeveloped characters, inconsistent sound design and confusing puzzle elements.
In 2017, TenNapel admitted that the developers ran out of resources to put the final polish in ''Armikrog''.
References
External links
*
*
Armikrogat
Steam
{{Doug TenNapel
2015 video games
Clay animation video games
Kickstarter-funded video games
Linux games
MacOS games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation Network games
Point-and-click adventure games
Science fantasy video games
Steam Greenlight games
Video games developed in the United States
Wii U games
Indie video games
Wii U eShop games
Windows games
Xbox One games
Versus Evil games
Single-player video games